Download Reconstruction and The Wizard of Oz

“Reconstruction and The Wizard of Oz”
I. The Aftermath of the Nightmare!
a) Over 635,000 dead
b) Over 1 million wounded
c) The war cost 15 billion
d) States rights, nullification, and secession laid to rest
e) Slavery was vanquished
f) Union victory provided inspiration to champions of liberalism and democracy
II. Lincoln’s Program “…with malice towards none, with charity for all.” March 4, 1865.
a) As early as December 8, 1863 Lincoln outlined his program for restoring the South to the
union in his “proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction.”
b) The flexible program rested on Lincoln’s theory that the Confederate states had never
left the Union.
c) Offered a full pardon to all southerners who would take an oath of allegiance to the
Union and accept all federal laws and mandates dealing with slavery.
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“13th Amendment – Ratified January 1865 – prohibited slavery.
d) Lincoln declared that a state could draw up a new constitution, elect new officials and
return to the union when conditions were met:
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A minimum number of persons (at least 10% of those who voted in the election of
1860) must take an oath of allegiance. 10% Plan.
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Restoration of the southern states must rest upon the principle of civil and
political equality of both races.
e) Lincoln’s lenient reconstruction plan was supported by moderate republicans and
democrats but it marked a split in the Republican Party. The “minority” “radical
republicans” wanted a much harsher treatment of the south. The ensuing battle between
the White House and Capitol Hill will become one of the fault lines in reconstructions
stormy history.
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BOOM! Lincoln is shot in the Back of the head at Ford’s theater! April 14th, 1865
“Sic Semper Tyrannis”
f) The task of reconstruction is now “shoved in the lap” of Vice President Andrew Johnson
war democrat from Tennessee, a former slave owner and unionist! What is his approach
to reconstruction? He is no Lincoln!!
“Strange course of history.”
III. Presidential Reconstruction:
a) In May 1865 Johnson launches his reconstruction plan… followed Lincoln’s!
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Offered Amnesty
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High Ranking Confederate officials and planters pardoned by the president.
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Revoke ordinances of secession
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Repudiate confederate debts
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Ratify 16th Amendment
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Appointed provisional governors of southern states
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Within months all the former confederate states met Johnson’s Requirements.
b) At first congress, republicans, responded favorably to Johnson’s swift plan. They liked
his stern treatment of southern leaders and hoped that the new southern governments
would show good faith by generous treatment of the freed slaves.
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No such luck. 
c) Southerners held fast to the Old Order.
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They enacted Laws – Black Codes – Designed to drive former slaves back to
plantations and deny them basic civil right. (Jim Crow 1881 Tennessee)
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They packed the delegations to the new congress with old comrades – 9
members of confederate congress, 4 generals, 4 colonels, and even the Vice
President of the confederacy, Alexander Stephens. Republicans were infuriated
by these ”Whitewashed Rebels.”
d) This was the last straw to the majority republicans. Under the constitution Congress has
the power to judge...”elections, returns, and qualifications of its own membership.” With
this power the republicans refused to admit the southern delegations to congress. Dec
1865.
e) This effectively blocked Johnson’s reconstruction plans. This set up the struggle
between the President and Congress on the course of reconstruction in the South.
IV. Radical Republicans:
a) From the time Lincoln’s program began to take shape, radical republicans had argued
that southern leaders could not be trusted… this was first manifested with the
congressional passage of the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864 – harsher than Lincoln’s plan –
required an oath of allegiance by a majority of adult-white males. Lincoln “pocket
vetoed”.
b) The radicals represented the abolitionist strain within the Republican Party. Led by
Charles Sumner of Mass. in the senate who supported the “State Suicide Theory” and
Thaddeus Stevens of Penn. in the House “The South is Conquered Territory.”
c) For them reconstruction was never primarily about restoring the south to the Union, but
about remaking southern society.
d) Radical Republicans by the end of 1865 concluded that the South would circumvent the
13th Amendment, the only possible response… The federal government intervenes and
forces the south into compliance… One problem = President Johnson.
e) Congressional Reconstruction:
 March 1865, Congress established Freedman’s Bureau provide emergency aid
to freedmen.
 1866 Congress voted to strengthen Freedman’s Bureau. –Johnson Vetoed.
 1866 Civil Rights Bill – Johnson Vetoed, Republicans rallied 2/3 majority to
overturn veto.
 Memphis Race Riots: 46 black, 2 white die … Freedman’s Bureau renewed. 2/3
vote overturn
 Republicans introduce 14th amendment, Johnson opposes. “Equal Protection of
the Laws”
 1866 Mid-Term election Johnson’s “Swing around the circle” shouting matches
with hecklers.
 1866 Election humiliating defeat for Johnson.
 Republicans won a 3 to 1 majority in Congress. They figured themselves
as…”Masters of the situation, free to proceed entirely regardless of Johnson’s
opinions or wishes.”
V. Radical Reconstruction:
a) In March 1867 a combination of both moderate and radical Republicans passed, over
Johnson’s vetoes, a complete program for reconstruction. The Reconstruction Act of 1867:
1. Congress divided the 10 southern states that rejected the 14th Amendment into 5
military districts, under a military governor.
2. Congress deprived former confederate leaders the rights to vote or hold office
3. Congress gave the freed slaves the rights to vote and hold office.
4. Write new southern Constitutions which supported black suffrage.
5. Congress required the states to ratify the 14th Amendment.
b) By summer of 1868, all but 3 southern states, returned to the Union under these terms.
VI. Johnson’s Impeachment: (Feb – May, 1868)
a) Meanwhile, Radicals were determined to remove their hated enemy, President Johnson
b) Congress in 1867 adopted the Tenure of Office Act, (over Johnson’s veto)… under this
law the president could not dismiss important civil officers without the senates consent.
c) Johnson put this law to test by dismissing secretary of War Stanton, a Lincoln holdover
and sympathizer of the radicals. Feb 21, 1868.
d) The house immediately adopted a resolution that Andrew Johnson be impeached.
e) Johnson’s Trial, carnival atmosphere, lasted two months. Just one vote short of a
majority Johnson was acquitted. He would serve out the remainder of his term, powerless.
VII. The Election of 1868:
a) Johnson’s impeachment showed the radicals had overreached themselves. Public
opinion was turning against them.
b) They needed a republican Hero, that Hero was Ulysses Simpson Grant. He supported
radical Reconstruction with moderation.
c) The Republicans effectively waved “The Bloody Shirt” and Grant won the election.
d) In the wake of their smashing victory the Republicans produced the last major piece of
reconstruction legislation – the 15th Amendment – the right to vote regardless of race “Poll
Taxes and Poll Tests” were still allowed.
e) The 15th Amendment troubled some, but the outrage pailed in Comparison to women’s
rights advocates. They had fought the good fight for abolitionism, yet had been denied. The
women’s movement fractured, picked up by progressives and populists 30 years later.
VIII. Life in Reconstruction South:
a) Scalawags – Southern white Republicans, Carpetbaggers – whites from the North
motivated by assorted reasons profit, capital, and idealism… personify reconstruction.
b) African American political leadership emerged from the “antebellum” freed blacks. Hiram
Revels of Mississippi became the South’s First Black member. Spurred on by black
ministers and newly created black churches, former soldiers, and northern missionary
societies.
c) Sharecropping – Distinctive labor system of cotton agriculture, in which freemen worked
as laborers, exchanging work for rent and supplies.
IX. Counterrevolution:
a) Ex-Confederates staged a massive “counterrevolution” against reconstruction – one
designed to “redeem” the south and restore them to political power under the banner of
the Democratic Party.
b) Force and intimidation against large populations of black voters in the deep south
became a common tactic
c) The Ku Klux Klan became a paramilitary force under the leadership of rebel cavalry
officer Nathan Bedford Forrest. “Terrorists”
d) Congress and President Grant responded by passing the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871
successful in curbing Klan activity, but showed reliance on federal troops.
e) The Republicans and Grant administration became weary of enforcing reconstruction
which would inevitable lead to its ultimate failure.
f)
Scandals and corruption charges would come to dominate the grand administration,
demanding civil service reform for the next two decades.
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“Credit Mobilier” “Whiskey Ring” “Depression of 1873”
X. The Political Crisis of 1877:
a) Democratic credibility increased so close was the election of 1876 between Rutherford
B. Hayes (R) and Samuel Tilden (D) that both parties claimed victory.
b) The Constitutional crisis was resolved only by Democratic agreement to accept the
Republican Hayes as president in exchange for an end to Republican rule and
occupation in South Carolina and Louisiana; Signaling the end of Reconstruction
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